vCenter Native Key Providers must be backed up with a strong password.

The vCenter Native Key Provider feature was introduced in U2 and acts as a key provider for encryption-based capabilities, such as encrypted virtual machines without requiring an external KMS solution. When enabling this feature, a backup must be taken that is a PKCS#12 formatted file. If no password is provided during the backup process, this presents the opportunity for this to be used maliciously and compromise the environment.

If the vCenter Native Key Provider feature is not in use, this is not applicable.

Interview the system administrator and determine if a password was provided for any backups taken of the Native Key Provider.

If backups exist for the Native Key Provider that are not password protected, this is a finding.

From the vSphere Client, go to Host and Clusters.

Select a vCenter Server >> Configure >> Security >> Key Providers.

Select the Native Key Provider, click "Back-up", and check the box "Protect Native Key Provider data with password".

Provide a strong password and click "Back up key provider".

Delete any previous backups that were not protected with a password.